KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) _ At least nine churches have been attacked in Malaysia amid a dispute over the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims in the Muslim-majority nation.
Firebombs were thrown at seven churches nationwide between Friday and Sunday, with another splashed with black paint. In another incident, a church’s wooden door was burned down.
No one has been hurt and all of the churches suffered little damage, with one exception. The Metro Tabernacle Church in a Kuala Lumpur suburb had its office on the first floor gutted by fire.
Many Muslims are angry about a Dec. 31 High Court decision overturning a government ban on Catholics using “Allah” to refer to their God in the Malay-language edition of their newspaper.
The ruling also applies to Malay-language Bibles, 10,000 copies of which were recently seized by authorities because they translated God as Allah. The government has appealed the verdict.